Page 13 of Lashe
“This is sort of what you did to the exhaust ducts,” I said in the most pathetic attempt at lightening the mood. His eyelids moved, but he couldn’t answer. “By the way,” I added, because apparently I couldn’t stop talking, “when you’re better, we’re going to talk about that thing that happened between us. The kissing thing.”
He snapped open his eyes and frowned again.
“Don’t you scowl at me.” I held up my hand and pointed at my palm. “You kissed me right here.”
He had the nerve to roll his eyes, but I suspected it had more to do with the fact that he couldn’t respond to anything I was saying. That had to be frustrating, but his face was growing softer as the sedative kicked in, and his eyes closed and stayed that way. His vital signs were strong as I watched the face mask. Thankfully, there was no blood. It completed its cycle and stopped operating on its own. I lifted the mask from his mouth and nose. He pulled in a deep breath and it didn’t rattle. He didn’t cough. For just a moment, I took in his relaxed features.They were softer, younger. He was so very easy to look at and I’d looked at him plenty over the years. Not once did he indicate that he saw me as anything other than a passenger on his transport ship.
I shook my head and held up the attached bag so I could see what had been in his lungs. Ugh. How had he talked at all? With the mask gone, he let out a quiet sigh and fell asleep, thanks to the sedative.
“Well, that talk is going to have to wait,” I muttered, knowing full well that the best thing for him was to sleep.
“What was this I heard about a kiss?” Stelis piped in. “That does not sound like professional behavior. Shall I put a complaint in his personnel file?”
“What? No.” I let out a confused chuckle as I put the medical equipment back in its padded case. “I think Lashe and I are a little beyond a professional situation out here.”
“Did you participate in the kiss?” she asked, with a little more intensity than I expected from her. “Did youinvitethe kiss?”
“He kissed myhand, Stelis,” I said. “Not my mouth. Since when did you become interested in gossip?”
“No need to get testy,” the assistant said tartly. “I can’tseeanything. There are no cameras to patch into.”
“Thank goodness for that,” I muttered under my breath. “Forget anything about a kiss. Just…delete it from your memory.”
“I don’t have the ability to delete anything, Anna.”
I hauled the medical kit back to its place in the main cabin. “Then how about we don’t mention it again?”
“Done.” She was quiet for a moment. “Do you find the transport operator attractive, Anna?”
“Why are you asking me that?” I asked, feeling a rush of heat at the direct question. “And how is it any of your business?”
“You forget that you have a small implant that allows me to monitor your vital signs, in case you require medical attention,” Stelis said. “Your breathing and heart rate altered when we discussed him. As for ‘why,’ it’s my business to take care of you. It is my only function. If you are developing romantic feelings for one of your staff, I need to know so I can prepare a plan of action for—”
“We don’t need a plan of action.” I shut that down. “I don’t have romantic feelings. I can find someone attractive without wanting to sleep with them.”
Stelis went silent, which was more worrisome than her continued questions.
I peered out through the viewport. The wind had died down to nothing again. It was exactly as it had been before. “Stelis, run a deep environmental scan of the asteroid, please. Is that system up and running?”
“Yes, Anna,” Stelis replied. “Lashe repaired scanning systems before he left the ship to clean the ducts.”
“Good,” I said. “It only got windy outside when Lashe was out there. Not only is that not a coincidence, but I’ve never heard of wind on an asteroid. I want to know what is going on out there, because I don’t think this is a normal asteroid.”
“Yes, Anna.”
As she worked on that, I went back in my room to check on Lashe. He was spread out on his back, sleeping peacefully. His skin tone—soft, pastel blues—shifted slowly, like lazy clouds over the sky. His chest rose and fell evenly as he breathed. I took the moment to just look at him. Hewasattractive, and I wondered if Stelis could tell that I was lying to her when I said I didn’t have romantic feelings for Lashe. I wondered what he looked like naked. He was probably jaw-dropping perfection in his birthday suit. I wondered if he liked me, or if he was having a delusional moment when he kissed my hand. I pulled a blanketup over him and he smiled in his sleep, curled onto his side and let out a soft, short snore.
“Anna, I have the results of the scan,” said Stelis. “The readings are atypical for an asteroid, or any solid rock mass such as this one. Bioelectrical currents run beneath the surface that are inconsistent with typical space-body formations. The wind was generated from underneath the surface and directed in a circulatory manner. I have detected many metal objects embedded in the surface in a variety of alloys.”
“More crashed ships?” I asked.
“It appears so.”
I was expecting something unusual, but this exceeded that. “What are the bioelectrical currents consistent with?”
“Possibly a ship with life forms,” Stelis replied. “Or an organism itself.”
An organism. It wouldn’t be the first time that space junk was a disguise for an alien predator. “That debris field we flew through, with the irradiated dust that disabled the shuttle,” I said. “Could it have something to do with the life form in this asteroid?” I pondered, rubbing my chin. “It could have been a trap. Disable a ship so it looks for the first place to land. And oh, what a happy coincidence that there happens to be a large asteroid right there. The only thing present for light years.”